Ice Work on the Hudson

Ice . .. white gold for some. Imagine the videos you’ll find at the end of this post. Imagine tugboat Cornell powering through it: two soundtracks being a smooth 16-cylinder engine and stuccato crunching of ice.

A tribulation for others. And like many dangerous things, ice can be beautiful, reminiscent of Thomas Cole.

Through this, your petroleum products must flow, safely. Here Sturgeon Bay cuts a trail for Davis Bay and DBL 28, loaded with 30,000 barrels of home heating oil, but

on a cold day, the ice chunks have already started to re-freeze before the square-fronted barge gets there.

Passing us is Justine McAllister pushing a light Reinauer barge, RTC 120 past the small village of Port Ewen, once home to Sojourner Truth.

Davis Sea‘s path here is flanked by Thunder Bay (port) and Sturgeon Bay (starboard). Each of these 140′ USCG icebreakers has a bubbler system that makes the hull slippery, preventing a “plug” of ice from building up around the hull. When you watch the video on Cornell, notice the plug moving forward in front on DBL 28, impeding progress.

At breaktime yesterday, Davis Sea, having delivered its load to a local oil distributor, comes out of the notch to raft up with Cornell. Elise Ann Conners . .. dates from 1881! Consider that Cornell dates from 1949 and Davis Sea from 1982!

All part of getting your home heating oil to the burner in your basement.

See a tugster video below.

and a video by Harold Tartell below showing progress of Taurus southbound through Poughkeepsie.

cornell is a day boat, so no one sleeps en route. it’s from 1949 after all. if i were from 1949ish, i’d not want to operate on long work trips 24-7 either. since i’m a mere spring chicken compared with a 1949-vintage riverbird, i can handle the time/do the distance.

and the sound of chains! to get back to your earlier question about sleeping . . . according to harold tartell, when he would sleep below decks on manitou, he would sleep well when tired, the “rock crusher” sound soothing. in fact, when the cutter transitioned from icy waters to ice-free, he’d wake up because it seemed so quiet, unsettlingly quiet. also, if i’m not mistaken, (someone correct me if i am) on sturgeon bay icebreakers, all crew sleep above deck.

[…] Ice Work on the Hudson: Ice . .. white gold for some. A tribulation for others. And like many dangerous things, ice can be beautiful, reminiscent of Thomas Cole. Through this, your petroleum products must flow, safely. Pics and Videos on TUGSTER » […]

Sleep?
Yes, we can sleep.
Personally, as long as the sound is constant it presents no difficulty for me. I found myself waking when engine hum would change, i.e. slowing to back, backing, coming ahead to break through the chunk that slowed us. I found the constant rattle and bang to be bigger issue in the long run AWAKE.